Various graphical user interfaces have been developed to provide an interactive framework for computer users. Computer programs typically provide a graphical user interface (GUI) to facilitate data entry, to enable viewing output on a display screen, as well as to manipulate or rearrange data. A graphical user interface can be associated with an application program or operating system shell, which may be running on a user's local machine and/or remotely, such as in a distributing computing system or over the Internet. In view of continuing technological developments and increasing use of the Internet, people are using computers to access information to an ever-increasing extent. Such information can reside locally on the person's computer or within a local network or be global in scope, such as over the Internet.
Users of window-based graphical user interfaces face difficult problems when they employ various programs for multiple tasks or activities—they often have a large number of windows to manage, with many windows for each task. Switching between tasks is difficult because the windows often can be scattered around. Moreover, if windows are minimized while not in use, they are typically not organized together. If not minimized, a user can be faced with a difficult task of locating all relevant obscured windows and bringing them to a top of a display.
When users begin employing large display configurations (e.g., multiple monitors), managing windows and tasks becomes an ever more difficult problem, because minimized windows are kept in a location that may be significantly distant from where they will be used. Managing many display objects on small displays (e.g., PDA's) is also difficult—in such case, oftentimes sufficient screen space is not available to display objects of interest.
As the amount of information content grows, another problem faced by users is that they are often forced to perform combinations of searching and browsing to identify information items of interest. Thus, users need more efficient means to discriminate the target items they are pursuing. Also, as the complexity of each item grows, users may desire to have more efficient access into portions of the items, without having to necessarily open an item in a full-blown application in order to do so. Although various attempts have been made via conventional user interface schemes to address some of the aforementioned concerns, there is still a substantial unmet need for a system and/or methodology that facilitates efficient use of valuable computer user's time and cognitive resources in a multi-task working environment.